A Second Glance
by mumeishi
Summary: Chihiro runs into the forest after a series of painful events and stumbles unto something she thought was lost forever. The problem with her fragmented life is deciding which pieces are important enough to pick up... and which one will lead her home.
1. Intro

**At a Second Glance**

by technogeist

-Intro Chapter-

Chihiro scrambled up the hill, slipping a few times in loose stones, slick from the morning dew. It was almost dawn, and she had to get back to her house in time to get ready for school.

A red flashlight swung from the belt loop on her side; she had left to search for the tunnel entrance early that morning when it was still dark. It had been five years since she had left the Aburaya, but she still clung to the fact that it existed. She had her hair tie from Obaa-chan as proof of it, though it only served as a bracelet now.

Five years had been enough to change her, and yet keep her the same. She still held on to the promise she had made on her leaving the spirit world desperately, despite the fact that she knew that she would never see her spirit friends again. Pushing her secret deep inside of her, she inadvertantly snuffed out the determination and optimism she had shown during her adventures with the spirits. Her face had lost the round look of a little girl it had while working for Yuu-baba, and she had sprouted a good five inches. Her personality had matured from a whiney little girl to a hardworking teenager, starting from her job cleaning the furos at the bathhouse with Rin.

'It's back there somewhere,' Chihiro thought to herself as she crossed the street at the top of the hill, hoping no one looked out of their windows at that moment. 'It can't just be gone. I need it to be there.'

She didn't know why she had gone out that morning to search for the tunnel. She hadn't done that in months, and the forest was as familiar to her as the back of her hand, with the amount of searching she had done over the years. It's not like she had a chance of finding the entrance anymore, and even if she did, how would she explain her sudden appearance to her friends on the other side of the gate? She would have no reason for staying, and could not be employed for a short enough amount of time to not be missed in the human world. Chihiro felt trapped between her want to return to spirit realm and the need for her to stay in the human world. It had been much too long, anyway. What if they had all forgotten her over there?

For the first year or so after the Oginos moved into the little blue house at the end of the street, Chihiro completely devoted herself to studying. She never made a real effort to make new friends at the new school, and gave up after a short while. They would never understand her, she thought. They could never actually know what she had done or where she had been, so she plunged herself into her books, trying to fill the empty void that the loss of an entire world left. Haku…Kohaku had inspired her to try to be something more than what she was. Feeling as though she could never compare, she tried to become as knowledgeable as she could, using her spare time to look up books relating to her experiences on the other side of the tunnel. Maybe there had been others like her.

She had waited a sufficient amount of time before deciding that maybe Kohaku unable to leave the spirit realm to visit her, and began to look for the entrance herself. Her parents could never know about her being gone in the forest so often, though, with all the problems they had been having with their marriage since the move. It would only serve as another big issue to them, a crazy daughter. So, Chihiro did all of her searching while they were either asleep or away.

She had never even found the path. Not the tire tracks, or the statues, or 'the little houses', as she so fondly remembered calling them while her father recklessly drove them into a separate realm. It was as if that world had never even existed.

Chihiro shook herself from her thoughts and quietly opened the front door, wary of how it creaked when you pushed it too far. It was unlocked, as she always left it when she went out to the forest. Sneaking in and out of her house was a simple thing after all of the sneaking around Yuu-babas office. Off go the shoes, the socks stay on. No one would hear her that way.

She scaled the stairs deftly, avoiding the third one up, which was in the habit of giving a shotgun like retort when stepped on in the wrong place. On the inside, her house was a mixture of traditional Japanese and western design. It was a split-level with hardwood floors, sliding doors, and a large bathroom with a tub that faintly reminded Chihiro of her bath cleaning days. Pulling her bedroom door aside gently, she entered her room and finally exhaled the breath she had been holding since she had opened the front door.

After checking the digital alarm clock that she kept on her dresser, she found it was actually only 5 in the morning. The sun had been coming up earlier now that it was getting on to mid spring.

"More time to sleep…" she mumbled, and slunk back under her pink and yellow quilted blanket.

For a moment, she lay completely still. It was comfortable in her bed, all curled up in the big soft blanket…but something didn't click. Something nagged at her mind, telling her a piece was missing, so she needed to remember. It was déjà vu in the worst way.

She narrowed her eyes. When she was out in the forest (Kohaku's forest, as she had come to call it), all she could think about was where the entrance to the spirit realm could be, or the path that led to it. She hadn't wondered why she was looking or why she had woken up, only that she suddenly had an incurable urge to go find it.

Chihiro shifted to move her arm out from under her and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms. She racked her brains for whatever it was she couldn't remember, idly wondering if there was a point to what she was doing. All of this thinking was getting to her.

"Okay, so first…what woke me up?" she inquired the ceiling while she rolled over to lay flat on her back, any chance of getting back to sleep completely gone now. Her eyes slid over to the small blue dream catcher that hung over her bed. She had put it up a few weeks after returning to the human world when she started having nightmares. Sometimes she dreamt of her parents being eaten by the customers of the Aburaya, other times of Haku dying before she could even attempt to help him, and sometimes just general memories of the Aburaya which left her feeling empty and meaningless when she woke up.

One of the beads dangling from the body of the dream catcher reflected a ray of light from the newly risen sun into Chihiro's eye, grabbing her attention again. Only…the blinds of her window were closed, and her lights were off, for fear of waking her parents when she returned. Chihiro glanced to her window and back up to the dream catcher. Sitting up, she reached a tentative hand to the bead and touched it

Dozens of memories of her time in the spirit world flashed before her eyes, and were gone in an instant. It was a dream; a dream had woken her early that morning.

She had dreamed of falling from the clouds with him. Kohaku. He had smiled, and she cried and held his hand while plummeting towards the ocean, feeling infinitely save despite their predicament. It rained dragon scales, and there was something else…there was something else in her dream. There was something important he told her while they flew back towards the Aburaya, and Chihiro didn't —_couldn't_—remember what. It was like remembering a song without being able to think of words, or even the tune.

"Kohaku…"

She pinched her eyes closed and reminded herself that she had been ten when it happened. Five, almost six years had passed. Kohaku must have forgotten about her by now, and it wouldn't matter if he didn't anyways. Chihiro would grow old, while he stayed in an ageless state forever. It was time enough to try to get on with her life, and she knew it.

So why was it so painful, still?

_**A/N** - This is my first attempt at fan fiction, so any type of advice would be appreciated. If you see any grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, or gaping plot holes, please drop me a review and I will do my best to fix it. Love! _


	2. Downhill

**A Second Glance**

-Downhill-

A small brown bird hopped around on the school roof, pecking at the bits of grass that grew from between the cracked concrete. Chihiro watched from her seat by the window as it bounced, cocking its head at odd angles every now and then to look at some of the interesting things that had blown up there.

It had been almost three months since the dream, and Chihiro hadn't been out to the forest since then. As there was nothing that she could do other than dwell on the past (which she had done more than enough of), she decided to just go back to her schooling and stop thinking about it.

It was lunch break now, and Chihiro was sitting by herself again. The ten year old who could stand up and yell back at Yu-baaba had died inside of her with her loss of the spirit world, or had just been pushed down so far that Chihiro could never find her again. Slowly eating her sandwich, she gazed intently out the window. Most people had given up trying to talk to her long ago, thinking she was a bit of an oddball for not joining school clubs and spending so much of her time either reading or studying. Chihiro wasn't antisocial, she just let other people come to her, rather than seeking out other company on her own. She was perfectly content by herself, anyways (or at least that's what she said). Thankfully, instead of taunting her for her differences, the other students just let her be for the most part. She had seen other people completely humiliated by their peers, only because they weren't the complete norm.

"She's always looking out the window," Chihiro heard a nearby girl whisper conspiratorially, penetrating through the haze that was surrounding Chihiro's mind. "What do you think she-"

The warning bell rang, cutting off her sentence. The bird stopped its hopping and jerked its head sideways toward the classroom.

"I don't care," another girl answered flatly, not bothering to quiet herself. Chihiro winced inwardly. She couldn't place the voice, having never even leaned all of her classmates' names. She was able to recognize their faces, which was okay because they never talked to her anyways. It was pointless information to know what they were called if was never necessary to actually call them that.

"So what are you doing over summer break?_ I'm_ going with my family to Hawaii for the _whole_ vacation. Six weeks on the beach!"

The bird stopped its bouncing and jerked its head towards a particularly stubby section of grass. No good. It took a few long hops and flew away, probably looking for some more suitable roofs to peck at. Though the bird was gone now, Chihiro continued to stare out the window blankly. It felt like the air was pressing in around her, giving her a headache and making it difficult to breathe. The corners of her vision rippled the way that light ripples above asphalt on a hot day, looking sort of like water.

The bell rang again a minute later, jarring her from her reverie. The rest of the students got up to throw away their trash, buzzing with conversation. Chihiro managed to clear up her lunch before the teacher returned and sat back down at her seat by the window. She glanced over to the majority of the class. They were all talking about their plans for the upcoming break. It took her a moment to actually process the major topic of discussion through her cloudy headache. Summer vacation. Summer had an equal amount of days as the other seasons did, but it had an irritating way of seeming so long to Chihiro that she was _positive _there was something wrong with her calendars. With nothing to do for such a stretch of time, everything just seemed to blur together so that she lost track of the dates sometimes.

The class sat back down and quieted themselves as the teacher entered the room. The lecture from before lunch resumed while a room full of teenagers tried to occupy themselves with something more interesting than the monotone of the elderly teacher.

000000

Chihiro rolled her scooter towards the base of the hill and sat down at the end of the sidewalk. The walkway turned into a set of stairs at that point, and her scooter needed to be folded up for carrying purposes. She would have ridden a bike to school every day if not for the semi short skirts that the uniforms required, so she had settled for using one of the slim folding scooters that had been all the rage a few years ago.

A fairly large tree provided a refreshing shade over a section of the concrete stairs, which Chihiro took advantage of whenever she needed the break. Resting for a minute or two on the bottom step, she leaned back against the slightly rusted pipe railing and closed her eyes. The weather had changed quickly over the past week or so, bringing in a wave of heat and humidity to the small town.

"Hey. Bother waiting up next time?" The voice drifted down from Chihiro's upper left a few minutes later. This was a voice she could place. She smiled slightly as a rustle of cloth told that her friend Eri was situating herself on the step next to her.

"What do I look like I'm doing?" Chihiro questioned back, her eyes still shut. Eri was a grade younger than Chihiro, and much more outspoken. She lived about 4 houses down the street, and was determined to pull a bit of conversation out of Chihiro ever day. It was probably because of her that Chihiro still had functioning social skills, and she was glad for the companionship on the walks to and from school.

"You look like you were on cloud nine when you left school and forgot to wait for me again…you know, if you sit in the shade too long, the mosquitoes will get you."

"Damn. You got me there, Sherlock. Lucky for the mosquitoes, I'm too hot to care." Chihiro fanned herself slowly and finally opened hey eyes. "Since when has it been getting this hot out?"

"Since June rolled around, honey." Eri sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Honey?" Chihiro pulled a face and stood up, brushing off the back of her teal school skirt. Eri followed, having finished folding her matching scooter. They began their daily trek up the steep stairs, thoroughly used to the amount of exertion walking up the hill gave.

"Yes. Honey. It's my new thing, starting today. Deary, too. Sounds nice, huh?" Eri seemed proud of her new terms of affection. "Just watch, it will catch on. Everyone will be saying it!"

"But you're _younger _than me. It just sounds weird," Chihiro stated bluntly. "By the way, what are you so happy about? You're practically bouncing."

Eri gave her a strange look and picked up her pace, racing a few steps ahead of Chihiro.

"It's the last day of school, Chi. What else do I need to make me happy?"

Chihiro faltered. She had forgotten that it was the last day, despite the amount of talking about vacation plans she had witnessed. Actually, she hadn't even begun to think of what she would do now, with school ending so soon. There had been an abundance of tests recently, but it seemed no different to Chihiro than any other time of the year. It didn't matter very much, but it bothered her that she would miss something like that.

'I should be more observant,' she thought admonishingly as Eri told her about her day. 'The date should have clued me in some, at least. Someday I'm going to miss something really big, and it will be right in my face.'

000000

Chihiro dropped Eri off at her house and continued on to hers on her own, feeling a little better after being relieved of her talkative friend. Thinking that way about Eri made her feel guilty, which only pulled down the black cloud that had been looming over her for the past few days even farther. She felt as though something bad was going to happen, like the anticipation of going down a roller coaster as you climb the hill. It had started as a slight tingling of her senses and turned into a dull throb of a headache throughout the week, making it difficult to concentrate on conversation for a prolonged amount of time. This made no exception for Eri, though she did cheer Chihiro up most of the time.

Chihiro dragged her feet as she walked into the driveway, not bothering to use the scooter. She reached up to dial the code for her garage door and absently noticed through the windowpane that her parents' car was still there.

"Damn headache. One…four…eight….seven." Chihiro had picked up the slight habit of swearing just from being around the other high school students. She thought it was crude, but had never made an attempt to correct her speech.

She narrowed her eyes as the realization dawned on her that neither of her parents had left for work that day. That was not a good sign, and usually meant that they were in the middle of another big argument. It was either that or something else was wrong entirely. As she made her way to the back of the dimly lit garage to deposit her scooter and go inside (she had always come home that way, not wanting to have to remember a key every day), she heard the faint sound of conversation through the partially closed door.

'They must be in the kitchen.'

She heard the tone of her mothers voice rise strenuously, but was not able to make out individual words. Her father's deep bass interrupted, but her mother continued on, her pitch still rising. Chihiro silently debated with herself to either knock to make her presence known, or to try and listen in. She stood for a moment in the middle of the garage, straining her ears. It would be better to be forewarned of her parents' being in a bad mood and to know exactly why than to go inside and have to watch what she said, incase she tread on an open nerve. There was nothing to stop her from eavesdropping, so Chihiro quietly crept up the few unpainted wood stairs and pressed her ear against the door.

Silence. Well, not exactly silence, but there was no talking anymore. She could hear someone walking around quickly inside, and from the sharp staccato of the steps she concluded it to be her mother. The steps grew closer suddenly, and Chihiro panicked. She started to back up to try and make it look like she had just walked in, but she didn't move fast enough.

Bang! The door collided severely with the side of her head, knocking her backwards.

"Ah!"

She tumbled down the three stairs that rose to the garage door and cradled her head, just as her mother stepped out of the house, a shocked look on her face and a suitcase in hand.

"Chihiro…" she breathed with wide eyes, looking like a deer in the headlights. Her gaze narrowed suddenly, and she glanced back in the house. In one swift movement, she slipped down the few stairs, swept herself into the little blue car, and tucked her tan business style skirt around her legs. She Chihiro a sympathetic look from the divers seat and closed the door with a click.

"Sayonara." Then she was gone.

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_**Disclaimer**, since I forgot it last chapterI don't own spirited away. Pfft._

_**A/N** - Well, I tried to write something a bit longer. I hope I didn't make too many mistakes…__Anyways, I'll be trying to get out chapters as soon as I can, but I don't know how regularly I will be able to write with karate and piano lessons on top of school work. (being a freshman sucks). _

_**JoJo** – Thank you, I plan on it  
__**SailoInu1 **– I plan on updating every Monday or Tuesday, but I may get a little off track sometimes. I'll try and do my best!  
__**Janelle **– …beats you up in art class. You don't have to edit the story for me if you want; I think I have it covered now.  
__**OceanicGoddess **– Yeah, it's a little similar to other ones... sorry. I have no idea what I'm doing with this whole writing thing, so if any of you readers have the time, it would be awesome if you could give suggestions for the story.  
__**KatsEye **- Aw, thank you. _


	3. The Doorway

**A Second Glance**

-The Doorway-

She continued cradling her head for several minutes, still sitting on the garage floor. Her legs curled themselves up towards her chest, and she rested her forehead on her knees, trying her best not to think anything at all. This proved difficult for Chihiro, though she practiced it everyday during school (albeit, she had never actually meant to then). It was only when she wanted to clear her head that thoughts bubbled up and overflowed, throwing her mind into turmoil.

"She'll come back," she whispered quietly to herself, knowing full well that her stubborn and frustrated mother would not return any time soon. But, it made it seem true to Chihiro, saying it out loud. "She has to come back."

After the pain in her head dulled some, she stood. She swayed a little and hung on to the railing, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. It wasn't so bad. There was a ringing in her ears to add to the increased headache and a small lump above her temple, but she didn't think that it would grow much larger. The most she would get off with would be a bruise and some achy limbs, and she had had worse before.

"What to do, what to do, what to do…." Chihiro ran her fingers through her hair and tugged lightly on it, its ends falling somewhere between the base of her neck and bottom of her ears. She anxiously paced the garage, glancing about the bits of odd hardware her father kept for his construction work. It seemed like a good idea to just leave and go to Eri's house. There wouldn't be any need to tell Eri what happened, she wouldn't mind. Then when everything had blown over and it was late enough that her father would be asleep, she could go home. 'Or just stay at Eri's all night…'

'No, I can't just leave him like that…even if he will be in a bad mood.' She decided. Even if it was just for a little while, she could never leave either of her parents when they needed her. She grown more attached to them than ever before, after almost losing them to the bathhouse, and always tried to be a better daughterwhen she was around them (she saved her cynical side for Eri). It was almost like she thought if she let them go for a moment, they would disappear, so she tried to keep them close as possible without telling them too much about herself. Now that her mother had left, a panicky feeling settled itself into her gut.

But, there was nothing she could do for now. The knot that had formed in her stomach would just have to go down to the depths where she had pushed her most dearly held memories, all of her overwhelming feelings, her secrets.

She started towards the kitchen and noticed a rust colored smear on the stairs that hadn't been there before. The sight of blood made her aware of a pain slightly below her right knee. She bent her leg, feeling it out. It felt warm and wet, and she knew without looking that she was probably bleeding quite a bit. She drew a deep breath and exhaled exasperatedly, blowing her wispy bangs away from her eyes. Refusing to look at her damaged limb until she got inside the house (which she had been avoiding), she stomped up the stairs and into the kitchen. Some beer cans were strewn about, one half spilled all over the counter. There were sandwich materials lying out, and the fridge was partially open. The sink was filled with dishes too, but Chihiro was used to coming home with her house in this state on the weeks that her father didn't have any construction work. Dishes would pile up for a few days, then she would get rid of all of them in one go, when she had the time. For now, she ignored the mess and pulled stool out from under a table covered in paperwork. She sat down and inspected her cut.

"Dammmittttt..." Chihiro felt like throwing a tantrum, balling up her fists and wailing like a three year old.

She had torn right through her knee-high sock. The red was slowly seeping downwards, staining the white material. She slipped off her shoe and peeled back the sock, hissing as it rubbed against the cut. Her leg was skinned pretty badly, but it wasn't too serious. She carefully dried off her shin with the cleaner parts the ruined sock, avoiding the raw area below her knee.

'It probably only started to really bleed after I got up….or I just didn't notice because…'

She let her bare leg drop silently to the floor at that thought. She had seen other suitcases in the back of the little blue car, brimming with her mother's belongings. Yuuko must have gotten in a fight with Chihiro's father that morning and spent the rest of the day arguing and throwing things in the car. Chihiro's shoulders hunched up and her head hung downwards, ragged bangs shading her eyes from the mess that she and her house were.

"Okaasan…"

She sniffed quietly and tilted her head back towards the ceiling, trying to keep whatever tears that had welled up from falling. It seemed like forever to her since she last cried, falling as fast as her own tears from a dizzying height, with a boy that...

Chihiro forced her mind back on track, trying to stick with the matter at hand. Besides, crying was useless to do, it couldn't change anything. It was better to stay rational and figure things out that way. She would be okay if she thought it through….if she tried hard enough, it would be okay.

She strained to keep her eyes open and let the tears dissipate, still facing the ceiling, then looked around the kitchen again. It was in terrible condition. Chihiro could use the cleaning to keep her mother (and knee) off her mind, pulling her into the oblivion that both school and chores induced. Cleaning up after her family seemed like less of a task after cleaning up filthy bathtubs and scrubbing rancid smelling spirits, anyway. It had become an enjoyable way to pass time and was productive, so Chihiro had become accustomed to doing the housework for her mother. Back in her old town, it was a rare chance that you could find her doing dishes or laundry. Her parents thought it had been the new home and environment that had inspired such a good change in her, but only she knew what had truly happened.

She heaved a great sigh and stood, resting her weight on the table with her arms. She organized her thoughts quickly and silently planned out how she would go about getting rid of the clutter that plagued the counters in time to make dinner for her father.

'Lets see…the table can go last, and I can get the nastier stuff like the dishes done first...'

… … … …

Chihiro hummed to herself lightly as she cleaned. She had calmed down considerably, and was feeling better about the whole situation now.

The counters had been cleared and wiped down, all of the cans rinsed and put in the recycling bin, and most of the dishes had been washed in a little under two hours. Dinner was simmering in a newly washed pan and a pleasant smell had just begun rising from the stove, when there was a sudden thump on the ceiling. Chihiro jumped slightly at the sound, and paused to listen. Her father was still home, she realized. She had almost forgotten that, and hadn't seen him since she entered the house.

'I wonder if he's doing okay…' she questioned herself, trying to imagine what they could have fought about that would have been drastic enough to make her mother leave the house. She shook the thoughts from her head and listened to see where her father's heavy footsteps would lead. The sound traveled through several rooms in the upstairs of the split-level, and then stopped. He probably had been watching TV for the past two hours, and was getting up to stretch his legs.

Chihiro sighed and continued to putter around, picking things off the counters and putting them back in their places. She felt more restless than earlier, now that she was reminded of her father's presence in the house. It was difficult to get back into the cleaning funk that she had been in before while different scenarios of what could have happened with her parents plagued her mind. Her determination to get something done (or to just keep herself from thinking) dwindled to nothing.

She gazed out the window over the sink listlessly, drying the plate in her hands with a terrycloth dishtowel. It took her a full three minutes to realize the dish was already dry, and that she had zoned out. After returning the dish to its proper place and fishing the sponge out of the dirty dish water, she began putting things away to take a break from cleaning. The dishrag was hung on the little handle beneath the sink, the soap put away, and the filmy gray water drained. She turned off the stove and moved the pot to an unheated eye.

The living room was connected to the kitchen by a short partition which ran half way between the two areas. Chihiro could see the pristine, yet comfortable looking white couch from where she was standing. It was a rule in the house to keep the couch as clean as possible. Shoes weren't a problem for it, as people generally took them off before entering the house (though Chihiro sometimes skipped out on that when no one was looking, and took her shoes off on her room), but mostly it was food that wasn't allowed on it. Looking at it, Chihiro realized how tired she actually was. She hadn't been sleeping well for the past few weeks, waking up in the middle of the night from dreams that she could never remember. It looked so comfortable. Debating whether to go upstairs to take a short nap in her room and risk running in to her father, or nap on the couch, she chose the latter. It was only for a little while, and she still had to set the table for dinner. She glanced at the clock to find that it was only four thirty. The Oginos generally ate dinner later than most families, so she would have time.

A nap it was.

… … … …

A rough jerk on her upper arm pulled her from the warm darkness of sleep, bringing with it a sudden pain that ripped though her leg, then went numb. Chihiro's eyes flew open, but her brain stayed groggy. There was no light coming in from the windows and only one lamp was on, leaving the room dim.

"What'z thus! What'v I told you ev'ry day since we got thus couch!"

Chihiro blinked upwards to the blurry shape that was her father and rubbed her eyes to clear the sleep from them.

"Well!" He gave her a sharp nudge with his foot for emphasis. Chihiro wondered how she got on the floor, and why she wasn't asleep. There was an incredibly thick fog in her mind, keeping her from any long trains of thought. Waking up earlier than she wanted to had always been a problem, and the summer warmth was urging her to just close her eyes and go back to sleep.

The foot nudged her again, but stayed there this time, digging in to her ribs painfully. She let out a small squeak and leaned away from the offending limb, only to have it double in pressure. Maybe she should say something.

"I…uh." Couch. Old one got taken away. New one was white. White things gotta stay…white?

"Don't get it dirty."

Lucidity was creeping back in to her senses, sending alarm bells through her mind. Her father was drunk. She needed to get away.

"I paid for thus thing with my money, yu'v got no…ya can't do that."

'Drunk off his ass,' Chihiro thought with a wince as the foot dug deeper into her abdomen, pinning her to the side of the couch. She hadn't actually counted the all of the empty beer cans earlier, assuming they had been from a few days ago.

"So what do you do! You bleed all over it! It's dry now too, that'll leave a stain. I thought that I could buy something nice for this house for once without having someone ruin it!"

He flipped her over with a clumsy movement of his ankle, and leaned down to rip her into a sanding position by her upper arm. Chihiro held her breath.

He glared at her through darkened eyes, shadowed in the dark room, and stayed silent for a moment. With a grunt, he lumbered away into the kitchen, rummaging around in the cabinets for something. She heard him turn on the sink and peeked around the divider to see him washing his face. Chihiro swayed and held on to the forbidden couch for balance. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, counting to ten in her head.

She exhaled swiftly and opened her eyes. Feeling flowed back into her aching arm and numbed leg, waking her up with the sharpness of it. The skinned area must have started to heal to the fabric while she was asleep, starting the bleeding all over again when she was thrown to the floor.

'I wish...I wish…' Still disoriented, she looked for a clock to find out the time.

"Eleven o'clock. Dammit. Dinner," she mumbled, deciding that maybe a nap hadn't been the best idea. She felt even more worse for wear than she had before she fell asleep.

'Dad never got dinner…I didn't finish cleaning. I didn't bandage my knee, I ruined the couch, and I didn't come home early enough to say goodbye...'

Chihiro whimpered and sank to the floor like a wilting flower. The sparkly purple hair tie on her wrist caught her eye, its beads glistening in the feeble light. She pulled it off and pressed it between her hands, as if trying to squeeze whatever meager comfort was left out of it.

"Obaachan…" The whisper fell flat.

She didn't feel any better calling to the distant spirits, and let go of her well worn bracelet. It looked lonely and dull on the wooden floor. She put it back on. She felt sort of naked without it, anyway.

Her father, still fumbling through the kitchen, was probably making more of a mess than she had to clean up earlier, though she couldn't see him from around the partition.

'I'll just do what he says,' she reasoned with herself. Her thoughts were coming to her in choppy pieces, scattering themselves as she let the lump of worry rise from her stomach to her throat. 'As long as he knows I am listening, he won't do anything drastic. He'll be back to normal in a few days, he'll get over mom. She got over him years ago; she just never said anything...'

She shook her head, berating herself silently for such low thoughts of her parents. It sounded terribly wrong, thinking like that of them.

'No, no, no. Dad's just mad about mom going. But she'll come back. She has to come back…and then dad will be okay, and mom will say she's sorry for leaving, and dad will say sorry too…and…'

Mr. Ogino shuffled back into the living room carrying a scrub brush and a half filled bucket of soapy water. He put it down next to her with another grunt.

"Get the stain out. Now."

"..Ha..hai."

"When ya'v finished, clean th'rest o' the kitchen. You'd better finish, too. Your motha let ya get away with a load of crap that I won't."

"Yes sir." The politeness she had learned from talking to gods had stuck.

She started working on the stain gently, trying to not wear out the fabric and leave it permanently damaged. A minute or so later, her stomach let out a soft growl, a protest to having only eaten lunch that day. Her father must not have eaten dinner either, then. Chihiro sympathized with her father's position, no matter how he treated her. It was part of her nature.

"I left dinner on the stove." She hoped he heard her, but by the way he was hunched over the paperwork on the table, she doubted he did. He probably wasn't as drunk as she thought he was, if he was reading those. Her mother had set him off on a bad mood that morning, that was all.

"O…otoosan?"

No answer.

Leaving the bucket and soapy brush next to the couch, she walked up and stood a few feet behind her father. He was haphazardly scrawling his signature across one of the important looking papers in a messy hand, not even bothering to read what they said. He moved on to the next document, his reading glasses cast aside. Chihiro arched her neck, trying to read the small print from behind her father.

"Ano…"

"I found it."

She looked closer at the paper, not knowing what he meant at first, then realized he was talking about dinner. Chihiro looked over to the stove then the sink, seeing the empty pot along with a newly dirtied plate. The papers seemed really interesting all of a sudden, and she leaned over the table, trying to find one with a title page of some sort. She did.

"You know what, just go to bed when you finish. Do the rest of the housework tomorrow. Go. And stop trying to read this." He whisked the rest of the papers into a manila folder, but it was too late.

Chihiro took a moment to process what she had seen on the title page, willing it to not be true. Everything that had happened that day made sense to her, though she wished it wouldn't now.

"Wait! No, you…" she stammered and took a step back.

She looked down at the papers as if the might swallow up everything good in the world.

"Chi, get out of here, I'm busy! Lemme sign the damn papers."

"But you…" she looked imploringly at her father, trying to fit the last piece into the puzzle.

"Quit it! These are none of your business! OUT!"

"Was it you or mom that filed for divorce! Let me read them!" she blurted out, taking a bold step towards the table and reaching for the folder.

"DAMN KID!" he roared, backhanding her across the face to keep her from advancing on the papers any more than she already had. She fell back on to the ground a few feet from the door to the garage, staring up at her father with impossibly wide eyes. Her mind reeled from the impact. He had never actually hit her before. Pushed and shoved when he was in a bad mood, maybe, but he had _never_ hit her.

Her hand moved slowly up to her burning cheek, trembling, and touched the hot skin. She winced as it made contact.

"Your mother, what do ya think! She brought 'em in this morning and packed up her stuff. Didn't even say why."

Chihiro continued to sit on the floor, unmoving except for her quick and shallow breathing. 'Get out, get out, get out, get out,' her mind was screaming at her. 'Get out _now_.'

"Finish the couch. Or go to your room." Mr. Ogino looked away from her, suddenly seeming to regret his actions. He shifted from one foot to the other. "Yeah. Go to your room."

"OUT!" he motioned for the stairs in a wild gesture.

Chihiro pushed herself up from the kitchen floor in a flash, grabbing the doorknob and wrenching it open at the same time. She skipped the stairs and, on impulse, grabbed her gym bag from where she had left it next to her backpack and scooter. She flew out of the garage and across the dark street, turning her attention to breathing, which had suddenly become hard to do. The bracelet around her arm felt as though it was on fire, but maybe it was just the strap on her gym bag pressing the beads into her wrist. Either way, she ignored it and kept running.

Blood pounded in her ears, and she started downhill, stumbling over her momentum and tripping on the boulders and rocks that peppered the hill. It was dark, but she didn't need a flashlight with how the moon was shining. She didn't know where she was going, so it didn't matter. The only directions she needed were forwards..

Her eyes stung, and she blinked away the tears that had taken so long to fall, fighting to keep herself under control. Big fat drops rolled down her cheeks no matter how hard she tried to keep them back, and she let go a gasp, turning her tears into sobs. The salt stung her damaged cheek, making her cry even harder.

The forest loomed ahead, and suddenly she was in it, the twigs and brambles tearing at her clothes. The farther she ran, the more a certain clarity she had been missing seemed to emerge. It felt as though a fog that had been surrounding her for a very long time was being lifted at the corners, but the densest part was still clouding her vision and thoughts, leaving her feeling as dull and far away as she had always felt. She felt more alive, more aware, the deeper into the forest she got, but only to the point where she could tell that there was something else to be sensed. Something far away was pulling her in, luring her with the feeling of completeness, but then tugging back and leaving her empty again.

A stitch in her side burned, but she kept going, trying to find whatever it was that was eluding her.

Suddenly, she tripped over a large stone near the base of the hill, her momentum carrying her forwards to roll several feet before stopping. Chihiro lay in a heap of limbs, barely able to support herself on her weakened arms, wondering how she had gotten so far in the woods with no lights to lead her.

Her head hung low, her forehead almost grazing the ground. There were tire tracks under her, but she took no real notice of them. Where could she go? There was nothing she could do sitting in the middle of the forest crying by herself. She sniffed back the last of the tears, and gathered the strength to stand. Maybe she could go into town and find a hotel.

'But I don't have any money…'

She started to rise, then stopped halfway up in a crouched position and held her breath. Her eyes grew big in a kind of fearful amazement. From the corner of her eye, Chihiro could swear she saw one of the statues that had been on the path to the spirit world. It had moss growing on its lower section and was chipped badly in one area, but its wide mouth and large eyes were unmistakable. She tried not to move, as though it would break the spell that had tied her back to the place that she missed so badly.

The need to know the statue was real overpowered her want to just sit and bask in the amazement that she could see it, and she turned her head to face it directly.

It disappeared.

She dropped back to the ground as a painful wave of despair tore through her.

"Kuso!" Chihiro threw her fist to the ground, relishing the feel of her knuckles hitting the earth. She then launched herself back into a standing position, intent on running again.

This time, it was red. From the corner of her eye, there was a definite wall rising up from the ground, blocking whatever trees she had been seeing a moment ago. It looked like...it looked as if it were...

"The tunnel."

She looked down at the ground, and followed the car tracks to where the entrance was. It too disappeared as she turned to face it directly. The tracks stopped exactly where she had seen it, and yet there was nothing there anymore.

Something strange was going on. Her bracelet burned, sending the strong sense of magic through her. Chihiro walked towards the place that the statue should have been and waved her hand around. Nothing.

From her outstretched arm, the purple beads glittered more sharply than ever before. It caught her eye, reminding her of the people she missed so dearly, the ones who had helped make it and the ones who hadn't.

"Haku…"

She reached out farther, hoping to the gods that it was real. She could go back there if it was real, she could leave. There would be no need to stay with her father, no need to find a hotel or seek out her mother or any of the other things she had thought of as she ran away from her home.

She could keep her promise.

"Please, please, please…" she whimpered, pleading to whatever force that was tying her to the human world to just let her go.

She gave one last feeble swipe to the area of the invisible statue, and her fingers barely grazed something. Chihiro sucked in a gulp of air, took a step forward, and pressed her palm up against the surface.

A sudden burst of energy exploded towards her, making her hair and clothes flow backwards as if swept by wind. She could see them now, both the statue and the building. She could see them, but also something in her minds eye, flashback of falling with Haku. It was like watching a movie in her head.

'It's the dream…'

Chihiro kept her hand on the statue, watching the scene unfold from a different perspective. Every word, every movement, every sound, she could remember them all so clearly.

Except…there was a new part. She strained to hear the voices, although they were inside her head and straining would be of no help.

"_Listen Chihiro, there is something important I have to tell you about how you got here." _

She watched herself nod, wondering at how young she looked back then.

_Haku continued on, a dangerously serious look on his face. "The place that you entered from was created by an evil spirit, one who liked to toy with and torture humans. He created the opening between worlds to let wandering humans into his realm. It was made in a way that if a person ever got away from him and returned to their world, they would never be able to find the gate again. This was done so that great numbers of humans would not come through to try and invade the spirit word in revenge for the cruel things he did. You will never be able to find this place again now that you know of its whereabouts. I'll have to go to you if we are to ever see each other again."_

"_But…what if I don't know how I got here? If you erased my memory of where the gate is, do you think that I'd be able to find it again if I looked?"_

"_I don't know…either way, it can't hurt to try. If you do come, only do so in emergency, and only in the day, when all the spirits are asleep. You will know where to find Rin."_

"_Hai…"_

Chihiro watched as Haku put two fingers up to her forehead. There was a soft white glow and her younger self closed her eyes. She opened them back up a few moments later, and Haku proceeded to tell her the rules of the test she would have to take to return her parents to the human world with her.

Chihiro blinked rapidly as the vision began to take a washed out look, then faded away. What had that been? Why hadn't she remembered Haku telling her that, if he was just erasing her memory of where the entrance was? He wanted her to be able to return? Why hadn't he come if he didn't know if it would work or not?

A thousand more questions plagued her mind, but Chihiro couldn't address any of them just then. There was no way she could think coherently now. She had found the tunnel.

This was an emergency, if anything…right?

Still touching the stone statue guarding the gate, she kneeled down to pick up her gym bag. She didn't want to lose contact, just incase. Being this close to the magic that she had lost before made her feel so intensely aware of every part of herself, every sense and every pain amplified. It was the void she had been missing for all those years. She felt closer to being whole than she had ever felt in her entire life.

She felt alive again.

Finally letting go of the statue, she walked forward to stand directly in front of the tunnel. She bowed the deepest, most polite bow that she could.

"Ojamashimasu." She waited another few seconds, hoping she was not intruding too badly.

But, he had promised, and she was tied into the promise with him. There was nowhere else for her to go, anyway. 'And I just have to see them… I have to see him, just one more time.'

Chihiro stood silently, sensing the air being pulled into the gateway before her as she had her first time there, standing on the edge of an entirely different world.

She then entered it, escaping into the land of the spirits, the kamikakushi.

… … … …

_**AN -** Ahhhh I'm so sorry for the delay! I guess I made up for it a little with the longer chapter (eleven pages!), but still…_

_I'm still editing these things myself, so uh, if you notice any mistakes, just drop me a review and I'll see what I can do (though replacing chapters _does _cancel reviews for the chapter, so I will avoid changing things unless it is a major problem)_

_Oh yes, and just wondering. Do you prefer a longer wait and a longer chapter, or a short wait and short chapters?_

_Thank you!_

... … … …

This chapter was edited on 5-25-05.


	4. Sai

_Sorry about how last chapter got a little weird…posting at midnight probably wasn't a good idea. Thankfully, I have managed to start writing longer chapters! I almost forgot to say that _o-jama shimasu_ is basically "I am intruding" in Japanese, and is said before entering someone else's home. I just thought it fit well in the scene, with Chihiro entering the tunnel like that. Now, on with the show!_

…………

**A Second Glance**

- Sai -

"Is it a dream?" she whispered to no one, her voice sounding louder in the empty tunnel than she thought it would have.

Chihiro walked slowly down the arched hallway, squinting into the darkness. She dragged her fingers against the crumbling wall, trying to feel her way through the darkness and keep herself from tripping.

It had to be a dream. She was asleep at home, she hadn't even gone to school, she told herself. She would wake up and go to school, her mother would go to work as usual, and her father...her father would do whatever he did when he didn't have to go to the construction site.

She shivered. Could you feel cold in a dream? The temperature seemed to drop suddenly, though it had been ninety degrees or so earlier that day. It felt like the warmth was being sucked right out of the air, pulled forwards through the blackness. She blatantly ignored the pain below her knee and in her head, not even wanting to consider that it might be proof she was awake. Again, she shivered. Chihiro went a few more steps, rubbing at her arms for warmth, before stopping. Luckily, she had taken her gym clothes home with her that day instead of forgetting them at school for the summer. She kneeled down to open the white plastic bag and hoped that she had the winter gym uniform in the bag also. She sometimes left it at school till the end of the year, shoving it in the back of her locker.

The bag crinkled loudly as she opened it and paused to look at its contents. Sighing, she stood and squinted ahead of her, her sight having adjusted to the darkness. Just the summer style shorts and tee were in the bag, which would do her no good here or the spirit realm. She left them lying on the ground and continued on.

'It's probably better to not show up in the spirit world smelling like old gym clothes, anyway. I don't want more complaints about the smell of humans than I got last time.' A slight smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she thought of the commotion that had erupted in front of the foreman's desk when Haku had announced her employment at the Aburaya.

Chihiro continued walking, noticing how strangely long the tunnel was this time. Over a half hour's amount of walking was starting to worry her. What if she was stuck in the tunnel and unable to get out, freezing to death in the end? In the feeble light (the source she was not certain of), she was just able to see her breath, the icy air forming little wisps that pulled forwards and away from her. There was no noise other than the sound of her shuffling feet, magnified in the arched passageway.

After a considerable amount of walking, she was finally able to see a silvery light at the end of the tunnel. She gave an inward smile to the thought. The spirit realm was what she had been yearning for, though she had pushed the feeling down for so long that she had forgotten what it was that made her feel so empty.

A room opened up before her, moonlight slating through the stained glass windows. Chihiro's arm fell to her side with no wall left to rest it on. There were a few benches scattered about, and a small fountain off to the right on which the colored moonlight fell.

It was so familiar...

Chihiro swore lightly. It wasn't a dream, for she wouldn't have been able to remember the room so well. She had only been there twice for a brief amount of time. She stopped denying that she was finally where she wanted to be. She was going to the spirit world. This time there would be no clinging to her mother's arm in fear of the unknown. This time, she meant to go. She walked across the room towards the other end of the barrier between worlds.

Her skirt ruffled slightly, the wind and heat still being pulled out the doorway she now stood before. The grasses swayed and danced under the unfamiliar night sky. It was so clear… they probably had no more pollution than the smoke from the fires in the boiler room of the Aburaya. Hesitantly, she reached out into the field, warmth washing over her hand. It was summer there as well as in the human world, she supposed. She exhaled and watched her silvery breath travel towards the door, only to disappear as soon as it left the archway. It was cold in the building, and yet humid and warm outside of it.

'Aw hell, I give up.' She thought, stopped rubbing her arms for warmth, and stepped out into the field. She let the hot and muggy air engulf her and looked over her surroundings, taking in everything she could see with a desperate hunger.

There were no clouds in the sky. Suddenly feeling inspired, Chihiro tried to find some of the constellations Rin had shown her while they would sit together on the balcony after work hours, before the sun came up. It seemed like an impossible task with so many more stars than she was used to in the sky, so she looked back down to where the river bed should have been, disappointed.

A seemingly endless stretch of water had taken its place.

"Night…right, okay," she mumbled. 'I guess I'll have to wait 'til morning, then.'

The field surrounding her looked slightly different than how she remembered it. There were many more shrines and small huts than there had been last time, spaced out amongst the tall grasses. Opposite the river, she could see neon lights and buildings towering from the horizon.

'The town across the river…'

Chihiro had sometimes wondered what was in that town during her stay in the Aburaya. Did Gods live there? Maybe it was another marketplace like the one outside the bathhouse, or maybe something completely different, something she couldn't even imagine.

She looked back in the direction of the Aburaya, feeling more at ease with the situation than she thought could have been possible. Maybe she was in some kind of shock, or in such a state of desperate lack of sleep that she couldn't think straight, she guessed. Whatever it was, she was content. Always feeling anxious and tired had settled down to being normal for her in the human world. It was just how things were. Now suddenly, she felt awake. Colors seemed brighter here, and along with her sight, all of her other senses were heightened.

Still looking around in wonderment, Chihiro's eyes locked onto a humanoid figure that was crouching in the grass nearby. She stiffened, slightly fearful, though the feeling was much less than what she had been feeling earlier that day. She knew how dangerous the spirit world was, but she couldn't bring herself to be too wary of it, now that she was there.

The crouching figure was child-sized, and as she looked closer, she saw that it was a girl. Chihiro stared for a moment, transfixed, before realizing with a jolt that the little girl was looking at her. Her emotions seemed to be flip-flopping all over the place today.

"Umm…" she started, slightly unnerved that she was not alone. The little girl stood, rising to about two heads shorter than Chihiro. She was wearing the orange female uniform of the Aburaya, and her light brown hair was cropped close to her ears. They stood staring at each other for a moment, before the girl spoke.

"You're human." The small girl seemed frightened by the fact and backed up a step, her innocent-looking eyes wide. She glanced down to the small shrine she had been kneeling before quickly, as if worried for its safety, then back up to a very confused Chihiro.

"Don't be scared…I'm not going to hurt you or anything. I just got here, I came through the tunnel."

She gave a placating gesture and pointed to the tower as she said this, hoping the little girl wouldn't run off. 'What a nice way to return, scaring the wits out of some poor little spirit,' she thought sardonically. 'This day is just getting better and better.'

"You work at the Aburaya, don't you?" Chihiro signaled to the smaller girl's attire.

The girl nodded. 'I wonder why she's not at the bathhouse right now... Its night time, they should be working up a storm with Yu-baaba ordering them around.'

As they stood there, a small, circular, white object began to materialize on the spirit's shoulder. Chihiro watched it warily, knowing how spirits would conjure up strange things sometimes. In only three seconds or less, the white object took shape, forming a head with large black eyes, and a small, rounded body. It gave a sort of rattle suddenly, its head shaking from side to side like one of those little bobble toys that people put on the dashboard of their cars. She remembered the plastic baseball player with the oversized head her father kept on the dashboard of the car, and shook the thought from her head. More little white mononoke were appearing by the second.

"You're not supposed to be here" the girl whispered, clutching at the waist high structure she had been paying tribute to, standing with it between them as if it would offer her some type of protection. Chihiro wondered what the girl had to be afraid of; here she was, a completely helpless human against some possibly magic wielding spirit.

"I know. But I can't go back. I really, really don't want to go back, I'm sorry. The water will go down in the morning, right?" She had no qualms about waiting it out. She had waited almost six years for this; she could wait a few more hours. Maybe then she wouldn't be in such a bad state.

"It starts to drain into the rocks an hour before dawn." The pale little beings the girl had conjured nodded to what she said, making little clicking and rattling noises as they moved. Chihiro tried to ignore them for now, their strange little faces creeping her out slightly.

She tried to gauge the amount of time she would have to wait until morning, silently wishing for a watch. She didn't even want to think about how that much water could be absorbed into rocks. 'Another one of those weird magic things…'

Her head was still hurting, feeling hot in the places where she had been hit that day. Chihiro ran her fingers through her hair, and stared at her feet.

"Ano…are you sure you are human?" the small spirit asked, now more bold than before. Her large brown eyes were filled with confusion.

Chihiro looked up at the girl quickly. "Of course I am."

"They said you would smell real bad. You don't."

Chihiro decided to take that as a compliment, though a strange one, and kept quiet. She sat down slowly, resting her back against the reddish wall of the tower, and looked back over towards the river. She could see the ferry halfway across the black waters, twinkling happily with yellow lights and red lanterns. By now, Chihiro's cheek was really starting to ache. She reached her hand up to her face to see how bad the damage was, and then decided against it, letting it fall down to her knee to pick whatever couch fibers that were still stuck in it out. She didn't want to let it get infected, though it might be a little late, she observed, from the red tinge of her skin spreading out to an inch and a half away from the scraped area.

"I don't suppose there's another way to get over the river besides the ferry?" The girl shook her head, and went back to staring at Chihiro with an odd look on her face. Other than that, she didn't move for a few minutes. Chihiro found that a little awkward, and tried to spark up a conversation while waiting for morning.

"So, what's your name?"

"…Sai."

A lame attempt. Still, she tried again, not wanting to have to sit in silence until the sun came up and the waters were sucked up into the rocks (or whatever Sai had said they would do). She had never actually seen the waters disappear, assuming that they just evaporated or something, rather than being sucked up into the ground.

"Do you know," she swallowed in between words, hesitant to finish the question she had started. She couldn't ask about Haku, it was too uncertain, too personal. So, she turned towards the skies again, looking for those constellations.

"Do you know if there is a spirit working at the bathhouse by the name of Rin, still? She's sort of tall, and she's got long straight brown hair… kind of bossy personality?"

Sai nodded once, before coming to sit next to Chihiro, her knees pulled up against her chest. "She's still there. I know her."

Chihiro sighed in relief, wondering whether she should be disappointed or elated. Rin had always said she would get her name back and leave the Aburaya someday, but five years later she was still stuck in the bathhouse. It was a lonesome thing to lose your name, and Chihiro knew it firsthand. If not for Haku, she would have gone on believing she was Sen and forgotten who Chihiro ever was.

Haku…She wanted to know so badly how he was, where he was, but couldn't ask. She was far too afraid of the answer, afraid that Haku had moved on and gone somewhere else. Anyway, who was she to impose on him? He was a great and powerful river god, and now that he had his name back, he had control of himself again. He wouldn't need her. She was human.

While Chihiro was going over this in her mind, Sai turned to one of the little white mononoke on her shoulder, and whispered to it behind her hand. It disappeared with a small pop, which went unnoticed.

"So how much longer you think we've got?"

Sai straightened up a little to squint off into the horizon, then sat back. "A little more than five hours."

"Ah." The conversation died out there (not to say that it had been a lively one). Chihiro relaxed, letting her head fall to one side, and drifted off to sleep.

… … … …

_**A/N** - Aha! I've finally got this one out! I would have had it out a week and a half agoif I actually had a computer at my disposal._ : (

_Sorry for the wait, & reviews make me insanely happy. You don't even know…So, review! XD_

_**AngelLilly67 **–Her father isn't particularly abusive, though he does have a bad temper in my story. Things went downhill in her family after they returned from the spirit realm, but her father had never hit her until that point. You'll get to find out about Haku in the next chapter, I promise! (Though I'm not even sure myself, I'm just writing this on the spot / )_

_**Thank you so much for editing, Janelle! **_


	5. Getting there

**A Second Glance**

-Getting there-

… … … …

A medium sized bird flapped its black wings against the light sea breeze blowing in over the waters, being careful to not fly too low in the sky. The magical river separating the Aburaya from the spirit town on the other side was not as wide if you traveled at least sixty feet above the water, and it did not want its trip to suddenly become much longer than it should be. The spell that made the rocky riverbed into a smooth black river every night had been created by the bird's mistress in order to create another way to bring in money. Ferrying the gods across such a stretch of water did pull in a considerable amount of gold, but it made travel harder if you were go any of other way than the sky. Luckily, Yu-baaba had her ways, and shared her secret of transportation with the yuu-bird, not wanting to waste time on missions in that direction.

Now the chimerical creature, a collaboration of a bird's body and an old woman's head, was heading to check on a border breach. In less than five minutes, it was on the other side and quickly nearing the red tower that served as a border between the human and spirit worlds. It swooped over the large building, saw what it needed, and began its return.

… … … …

Yu-baaba was in a foul mood, and when she was in a foul mood, she made it known. She stomped through the halls of the bathhouse indignantly, checking with a few of the foremen and the head of the cooks on her way towards that cursed dragon's office.

Business was good that day, it seemed. It was already two hours past midnight, and yet customers were still pouring in the doors. Money changed hands rapidly, its destination a massive vault in the upper parts of the Aburaya, where Yu-baaba herself could keep a close eye on it. But, even the tantalizing idea of how much extra gold she was making could not pull her out of the depths of her mood. She was incensed.

"That damn dragon…" she muttered. One of her eyes twitched slightly as she continued her march towards her former apprentice's office. She lit a cigarette to calm herself, not even bothering with one of her usually ornate filters.

"Setting up contracts for part time jobs behind my back…part time! That was never in HIS contract! Why, he shouldn't even be giving out_ fulltime _jobs without my permission…"

She blew a stream of smoke out her nose and paused her quiet rant to tuck a piece of hair back into her gray bun. Standing in the middle of the hall with her fiery eyes, unkempt hair, and smoke wafting from out her nose, she was a vision of rage. Suddenly, her eyes shot towards one of the upper windows of the long hall. The yuu-bird was back from his mission.

It drifted down from the window with more grace than its looks permitted and lighted on Yu-baaba's outstretched arm. She peered into the yuu-birds eyes, and it into hers.

Her deeply etched frown slacked, as she processed what her minion had seen. A smile grew in its place, widening by the second. Yes, she would extract her revenge. She knew just how…

With that thought in mind, she changed directions to head back to her own office. Today could turn out to be a very good day if she played her cards right.

… … … …

"Sen, wake up! C'mon Sen!"

Someone was shaking Chihiro by the shoulders gently, urging her to get up. She groaned and pushed the offending hands away, not ready to move yet. It was summer vacation now; she shouldn't have to get up early anymore. A light breeze tickled over her bare legs, pushing her skirt up a little higher and bringing in a draft. Chihiro tucked her limbs in closer for warmth and reached over for her blanket, mumbling something incoherent and feeling terribly sore. Instead of finding cloth, though, her hand hit dirt. Dirt? Wait…

Sen?

Chihiro blinked her eyes open and pushed herself up against the wall, having fallen over sometime while she was asleep. Instead of seeing the spirit plains and scattered huts, her vision was obscured by a pale, yet elegant face, which at the moment was looking extremely concerned.

She had missed this face so badly when she went back to the human world. It was like losing a sister.

"Rin?" she asked quietly. Chihiro went to wipe away the pebbles that had stuck her face while she had slept on the ground, only to have her wrist caught gently and brought back to her side.

"Oh, Sen…What happened to your face?" Rin's eyes misted over, only to revert to their usual determined gleam a moment later. She backed up a little, still crouching, to let Chihiro sit up all the way. From her sleeve, she pulled out a plain white handkerchief. Chihiro eyed it warily as Rin suddenly took on a motherly air.

"Here, lemme see." She went to wipe the dirt from Chihiro's face, only to be pushed away.

"No, Rin. I'm fine, really." It was hard seeing Rin again so suddenly. Just earlier that day, she had been sitting in a classroom, never thinking she would be back in the kami no sekai that same night, if ever at all. Despite the amount of time from when she first saw the statue in front of the entrance to being woken by Rin a few hours before dawn, she still doubted that could be real, that she could be back. She was more than a little shocked by the day's events.

Rin persisted with the cloth, seeing how distraught Chihiro was. "Don't worry, it's clean, I promise. Watch this." She held the kerchief in front of herself, seeming to be concentrating on it very hard. Chihiro looked on, confused, until water started dripping from it in streams.

"Neat, huh?" Rin rung the excess water off the cloth and talked in a comforting voice as she wiped the dirt from Chihiro's cheek.

"You know, I haven't used any magic in years. Decades even. Yu-baaba's got a spell on the Aburaya and its grounds so none of her workers can use magic there, expect for some of the important ones. It's in the contract, too. Actually, I guess I haven't been off the grounds in years either. Probably…since the last matsuri. How 'bout that."

Chihiro sat quietly and looked at the ground while Rin talked, still taking things in. Rin was here. Everything was okay now. Everything would be alright. In spite of that, she was having trouble breathing. She drew in a deep lungful of air and held it, feeling as if her chest was going to explode. Her eyes welled up, and this time she didn't even bother to try and stop them. She threw her arms around Rin just as she burst into tears.

"Oh Rin!" she sobbed into her shoulder, "I missed you so much!"

Rin patted her back, looking uncomfortable. "It's okay, Sen."

They sat like that for a few minutes, Chihiro feeling overwhelmingly relieved to the point of crying, and Rin consoling her. Rin pulled back and sat on her haunches when Chihiro finished.

"You gonna be okay now?" Chihiro nodded, rubbing her good eye. "I won't ask you what happened, but that sure is a whopper of a bruise you got there, kid. I can get something from Kamaji to put on it when we get back, but…" She glanced down to Chihiro's attire, a fleeting look passing over her face as she saw how her skirt had ridden up.

"What?"

"We've gotta get you something else to wear before we get there. Wouldn't want the Yunas to make a scene." She shook her head, looking disappointed. "Really, Sen. That's not what I expected of you."

"What's wrong with my clothes?" Chihiro questioned, feeling genuinely concerned.

"What do you mean, what's wrong? You're barely decent! That skirt is way to short for _anyone_ to be wearing, and here you come waltzing in right in the middle of the night with—"

Chihiro readied herself to interrupt, prepared to defend her school uniform. She kind of liked the sailor style. Instead, a hand came down on Rin's shoulder, silencing her before Chihiro had to say anything. She hadn't noticed up until then, but there was a third person standing out there in the darkness with them. A cloud passed over the moon at that moment, making it hard to Chihiro to see.

"Rin. It will be dawn in less than two hours." A soft voice informed them. The cloud passed, and Chihiro saw that it was Sai. She thought she had left earlier when she fell asleep.

"Ah, thanks." Rin stood quickly, pulling Chihiro up with her by the hand. She glanced down, reassessing Chihiro's skirt now that she was standing.

"Hmph. I guess it's not_ that_ bad. We can probably get you on the ferry like that." Despite what she said, she still looked considerably unhappy with Chihiro's attire.

"We're taking the ferry?"

"Of course! How else do you think we would get there before morning?"

Chihiro shrugged and looked out over the river, trying to find the ferry on the vast expanse of water. The prospect of riding the ferry seemed a little frightening to her, it being completely filled with important gods on their way to the bathhouse. Would they allow a human to ride with them? Probably, from how Rin was talking about things, but that didn't mean they would like her.

She looked at Sai from the corner of her eye, trying to figure out the small spirit. She was standing with her weight resting on one leg, stroking the mononoke on her shoulder absently. As Chihiro watched, the tiny white spirit climbed awkwardly up Sai's hair to sit splay legged on the top of her head.

"Oi, Sen. Stop staring." Rin nudged her in the side with her elbow and started walking towards the water. "You should be thanking Sai. She sat with you the whole time while you were asleep, right up until I got here. You never know what kinds of things are prowling around in the middle of the night."

Sai looked over towards Chihiro and quickly turned away, her face red. Having much shorter legs than Rin, she had to jog to catch up with her. Chihiro walked behind the two spirits at her own pace, still tired from the whole ordeal. As soon as they reached the shore, Rin flopped down onto the sand into a cross-legged position. They were still a ways away from the docks, where a number of gods were disembarking a large double-decker bus which promptly disappeared after the last one got off. Chihiro crouched, not feeling like getting sand all over herself.

"So how _did_ you get here?" Chihiro inquired, not understanding how Sai had contacted Rin. She was just barely back here and already getting confused by the kami no sekai.

Amused, Rin crossed her arms and smirked, happy to explain something Chihiro didn't know.

"Easy. Sai sent one of her little wood sprites. Pretty handy for things like that, aren't they? They can just pop up wherever they please, as long as it's not too far."

Chihiro nodded, feeling a little less uneasy about the quiet girl. Really, she was quite cute with that serious look all the time, and, she had helped Chihiro. Nothing scary there.

The three of them sat in each others company for a while, waiting for the ferry. Light from the distant Aburaya reflected off the water, giving it an eerily festive look. Rin hunched up and rested her chin on her hand, scowling to herself. A wave washed up the shore, making it seem more like an ocean than a river. Chihiro wondered where all the sand came from if it had been a field there earlier that day.

"I'm sure there something I've forgotten…" Rin peered into the dark waters, seeming to see something that Chihiro couldn't.

"The ferry's almost there…but..." Her scowl deepened as she strained her mind to remember. After almost a minute of this, Rin suddenly snapped her head towards Chihiro. Her mouth dropping open slightly and her eyes grew fearfully wide. She burst from her sitting position to stand on her knees, frantically tearing something from her pocket and pushing it towards Chihiro's mouth.

"AH Sen, I remember, quick! C'mon, eat this before you disappear!" Chihiro leaned away from Rin in her outburst, putting her arms up between them. She looked at her hands fearfully while she deflected Rin's attempts to force feed her, worried that she actually was disappearing. They looked solid.

"Calm down! I'm not disappearing, I swear."

"…have you eaten something yet?"

"No."

"Then you're going to disappear!"

"I am not! Look at me." Reason had no effect on Rin, or even the sight of Chihiro's completely solid hands thrust in front of her.

"Yes, you are! C'mon, just take it" Rin whined, giving Chihiro a pitiful look, exaggerated in the feeble light. She held out one of the confetti candies that were usually fed to the susuwatari. It looked lonely all by itself in the center of her palm, barely casting a shadow on her hand. Chihiro looked out across the water and then back over the plains. She felt small in such a vast expanse. She missed the susuwatari and the boiler man Kamaji that ordered them around. She missed Zeniba, Kaonaji, Bou, even Yu-baaba.

She missed Haku so much that her heart could have torn in half, but she could never tell him that, even if he was still there.

She wanted to see him again.

It couldn't hurt to eat it even if she wasn't disappearing, Chihiro reasoned, and it would make Rin feel better. She took the spiky white candy, realizing how hungry she really was.

It was sweet. It reminded her of the little jawbreaker candies she would buy from a corner store from time to time, though it had a kind of spark to it, as if it were electrified.

"Does that really happen?" Sai looked to Rin for an answer.

"What happens?"

"Humans." She gave Chihiro another one of her strange glances. "They disappear when they come here."

"Yeah. I've never seen it happen before, though." Rin sat back onto the sand and sighed. "We've got another five minutes for the ferry."

A wave washed up particularly closer than the others before it, almost skimming Chihiro's feet.

"It's…it's not like we just suddenly pop out of existence." Chihiro spoke softly. "You kind of fade out. The first time I came here, I almost vanished completely."

Sai nodded. Neither of them said anything else until the ferry came.

It appeared in the same fashion that the bus had left in, with a tiny flash and a purplish fog that dissipated quickly into the cool night air. Rin stood and motioned for the other two to do the same, while brushing the sand off of herself in a few quick swipes. They began walking to the dock where the gods were waiting. A worker from the Aburaya stood with them, impatiently tapping his foot.

"Aw shit. Sen…ah…Chihiro?" Rin whispered to her.

It startled Chihiro to hear Rin use her real name. They stopped about thirty feet from the dock, Rin glancing around nervously from the bathhouse worker to the glowing ferry. The lantern's light from the bus stop did not reach them, leaving the three unseen by anyone else.

"I need you to do something for me, okay? I'm not really on good terms with the guy on duty right now and he probably won't let you get on, so…alright. Can you pretend to be unconscious for me?" Rin looked over to the group of gods and frowned. There were only a few left, while the rest had already gotten on the boat.

"I don't want him asking any weird questions or anything. It'll be fine when we get to the bathhouse, don't worry. I just need you to do this for now."

"I can do it." Chihiro was quickly regaining the resolve she had during her first stay in the spirit world. She determined to make it in the ethereal plane if she couldn't in the human world.

'The human world. That all it is to me now, isn't it? That's all it's been since I moved. There's nothing even there for me…except Eri and my parents, and they – '

She shook her head from the thoughts of her parents. That wasn't going to get her anywhere.

"What do I do?"

"Alright kid. Stay put for a sec." Rin leaned down and picked Chihiro up, draping her over her shoulder like a rag doll. Sai backed up a little when Chihiro yelped in protest; Rin's arm was wrapped around her legs in order to keep her in place and had pressed against her raw knee. Chihiro felt bad for scaring the little spirit so much, but maybe it was just in her nature to be so skittish. She shifted a little to try and make Rin's shoulder press into her stomach less, ending up in a worse position.

"Don't move so much Sen, you're supposed to be knocked out."

Rin walked smoothly under Chihiro's weight. She was obviously a lot stronger than her looks permitted, but so were most spirits. Things like that still made Chihiro slightly uneasy inside, like giant talking babies and seeing things appear out of thin air. But, she felt more calm than ever, being there. She pinched her eyes shut and heard Rin call for the Aburaya worker to hold the gangplank for her. They sped up for a moment, and then our heroine felt herself come to a stop. She tried her absolute best to look unconscious, which wasn't hard to do, seeing how exhausted she was feeling.

"Whadda ya got there?" The frog seemed mildly irritated already. Sai stood behind Rin, not liking the looks of him.

"A human. Don't worry, I knocked it out already. It's not going to wake up for a good while. Lemme on, I've got stuff to do." Rin said briskly, trying to push her way past the bath worker while smoothing down Chihiro's skirt discreetly. She didn't want him to see anything he wasn't supposed to.

"What do you mean a human? That thing doesn't smell human at all. What are you hiding, Rin?"

"Nothing. And if you know what's good for you, you're not going to butt into Yu-baaba's business."

"Yu-baaba sent _you_ for THAT? What for?" He started to inspect Chihiro, poking and prodding her all over, finally turning her face towards him for a better look. Chihiro resisted the incredible urge to jerk away with how he handled her bruised cheek.

"Stop that!" Rin turned to give him a swift kick in the side of the leg.

"Ow! C'mon Rin, you've got to have seen the face she's got on her! Disgusting, if you ask me."

"Oh just let us through. You're making the gods wait."

"Fine, whatever you want," He grumbled, and reopened the ferry gate for them. He moved to the front of the boat to start the engines and let Rin take Chihiro and Sai down to one of the lower rooms in the ferry. She closed the door behind her, making sure to lock it, and then set Chihiro down on her feet.

"And here we are, fully intact and on the ferry!" She let out a great sigh and sat down on a pile of canvas bags next to Sai. Chihiro stood still for a moment and rested her hand on the wall, trying to get her bearings.

"Why don't you take a nap until we get there, kid? You look a mess."

Chihiro nodded and sat next to her. She leaned her head on Rin's shoulder, and for the third time that night, fell asleep.

… … … …

A/N- I'm sooo sorry about the wait! For half the time, I didn't even have a working computer, so I guess it wasn't_ that_ bad. Still no Haku so far, but we have Rin and Yu-baaba! I'll get him in the next chapter, I promise!

Thank you to all of my reviewers! I wouldn't be writing without you.


	6. An interlude for thoughts

**A Second Glance**

Overlapping Thoughts

… … …

Chihiro woke up with a dull headache. She blinked her eyes open to see that the room was empty, and then shut them again. A lantern swung from a hook in the center of the ceiling in time with the ship, letting out a mournful squeal each time it passed back and forth, pulling the shadows this way and that. Chihiro shifted to rub the sleep from the corner of her eyes and curled up on her side. The pile of burlap sacks that she was lying on itched at her skin and stuck to her hair, pulling the strands in different directions and tangling them together. After a few moments, she sat up and tried to flatten her hair down as best she could. It was easier to manage now that it was short, but it could be just as bad at times because she could never seem keep it out of her face. The boat gave a dramatic lurch as she stood, sending her towards a stack of wooden crates. Chihiro caught her balance less than gracefully, but held steady. She had fallen down enough times for one night, she decided bitterly. The room swayed with the boat, making her feel slightly dizzy, but it wasn't much of a bother. She knew where she was heading, at least. That was all that mattered.

Stretching her arms out and letting out a great yawn, she fell backwards onto the pile of burlap bags, feeling the air whoosh out from under her as she landed. Chihiro thought up little plans of what to do once she got to the Aburaya, plotting out the scenarios and conversations in her mind as she lay there watching the lantern swing. She purposely left everyone she missed exactly as she had left them so long ago, pushing six years of change to the back of her mind. Change…change was a strange concept; the way people become so different without even realizing how it happened. Despite the good that working in the Aburaya had done for the ten year old Chihiro, all of the character she had gained melted away so quickly once she was back in the human world. Chihiro would have liked to think that she had changed for the better since she had left the mahou no sekai, but all she could think of was how at ten, she had more maturity than she did now, bordering on sixteen. Thoughts of what ten year old Chihiro would have done in this situation replaced thoughts of what was to come ahead, bubbling up in her mind in a soup of regret. She regretted so many things. Those regrets tore at her and pushed thoughts of all the things she had done wrong through her whole of her mind while all the things she could have done to correct those wrongs filled in the cracks between.

'I should have just left him alone, left the papers alone. It's not my business what they do. It wasn't my place, I hardly see more than two hours of either of them a week, I don't know them. I don't know them. Neither of them deserved that. I could have talked to them more, tried to figure okaasan out, to get otousan to stop drinking; I could have tried to fix things.'

She exhaled and blew her bangs out of her eyes. This was getting her nowhere. If she were to try change for the better, even if it took a very long time, then she would have to remember what it was that made her do what she did at the age of ten. She closed her eyes and tried to clear away the irrelevant regrets from years ago that battered her mind, calling entry to the deepest part of her. She let out another deep breath, pushing out the memories of bad school experiences, memories of all the days she had come home to an empty house looking as if it had been ransacked, or worse, her father hung over and still in it. She pushed remembrances of staying up late by her window, sometimes till two am waiting for her mother to come home, far, far into the back of her mind where, she decided, they could stay forever.

Chihiro turned her thoughts back to where she was going, to where she was. The spirit world surrounded her, oozing magic from the very air she breathed. It was strange how she could feel safe there in another world, in the hull of a ferryboat with no idea of the time. Well, maybe not strange, but very abnormal. She had reasons for her sentiments. For one, Rin was there. Rin was real friend, someone who she could trust with her life. There were others, too, others like Kamajii and Zeniba, Kaonajii and Bou. She had even befriended some Yuna in her three month stay. And Haku…the mere thought of him made her feel safe inside, safer than she had ever felt before. Chihiro tried so hard to remember a time where she had felt completely safe in the human world, but gave up, feeling terribly disappointed. It was scary to think she had spent six years, six _years_ not ever feeling secure. But, along with this feeling, thoughts of the river god put a knot of fear in her stomach.

She still didn't know if he was even there anymore. And what if he was, and he was different? What if he had forgotten her, what if he had changed his mind and never wanted to see her again? Maybe he knew just how pitiful she really was and never really meant…

No. Of all the things she could doubt, she couldn't doubt Haku. That was one thing she was sure of.

… … …

A cloud drifted over the moon slowly, obscuring the light cast through the ornate windows on Yubaabas floor of offices. Sitting behind a large desk in one of those offices, Haku stared blankly at a pile of papers in front of him. A candle flickered to his left, causing shadows to dance across the trinkets scattered over his working area. His head rested in his hand while he tapped the end of a quill absently on a sheet of blotting paper. It had run dry of ink almost a full minute ago, but he couldn't seem to bring his attention back to focus. Something was pulling at the back of his mind, pulling at his attention and not letting him get any work done. Sighing, he set his quill down and rubbed his temples, trying to rid himself of the stress headache he had built up over the week. It would be a simple thing to make a potion for correcting this, but more and more paperwork was piling up on top of all the other things he had to get done. Anyway, it wouldn't be very befitting of a dragon to let a little headache get the better of him. It was just on principle that he wouldn't take anything for it, and it was screwing up his work schedule.

He needed something to get his mind off the mountain of paperwork. Haku leaned back so that his chair was resting against the wall behind him and its back two legs. The bathhouse was boring him recently, its unusually grandiose customers seeming ordinary to those who saw them every day. Daily arguments over dominance in the business had become routine, a meaningless goal to be pursued for lack of a better one. When had he become so apathetic? In comparison to Chihiro, the girl who gave her everything to save her parents, he was nothing. She was emotional. She tried so hard with every fiber of her being to reach her goal, and yet he couldn't even decide what to do with his spare time. Even with four thousand years of sentience on his side, he could still waste away empty minutes with practiced ease. He really should have learned from her. Or, at least kept what he had learned and not let it slip away as quickly as it had.

Now that she was in his head, Haku realized how long it had been since he had last thought about her. Chihiro. He missed her, but after finding that the gate to her world would reject him, he had given up on ever seeing her again. It had taken a good year and a half of frequent visits to the gate for him completely resign to the fact that she was lost to him. There was no use in even trying anymore; the magic that bonded the gate together was twice as old as he, and more complicated than he could conceive. He had to grow up, let his childish body begin to age and mature. It was time to let things go, and the incompleteness he felt without her was soon covered up with the duties of holding a partnership with Yubaaba. Still, even six years after he had last seen her, a wave of loneliness would wash over Haku the odd time he thought of Chihiro. It was the sentimental side of the dragon that held on to her memory, while the rest of him was trying to forget what he couldn't have.

Besides,she would have long forgotten him in her human word. He would be easily replaced with a boy her age, someone who would treat her right, someone of her kind. She deserved better than him and would have no trouble finding someone, he told himself. And who saidChihiro had ever held romantic thoughts at ten years old? No, he had imagined it.

Haku let his chair fall down onto all four legs and got up. He would take a walk around the Aburaya, maybe visit the gardens. The flowers were usually blooming around this time of year, but one could never tell with the types of plants that grew in his realm. His paperwork could wait, he decided, and left his office.

… … … …

A/N – LOVE. Yesssss, I started writing again! I realize that this chapter is short,butIhave chapter seven started, and ideas are SWARMING. Sorry it took me so long, too. Transferring schools really messed with my schedule, and any thoughts of writing just went completely out the window.

BUT I'M BACK. I swear. (P.S, reviews keep me going!)


	7. Haku

**A Second Glance**

Haku

… … … …

"Sen. We're going to dock soon."

The hull of the boat was quiet, almost deafeningly so compared to the rest of the ferry's rooms, Rin observed. She slid the door closed behind her with a quiet click, her eyes drawn to the reclining figure that was Chihiro. This group of gods Rin had been tending to was a rowdy one next to the usually silent and dignified crowd. Sai was still in one of the upper rooms, waiting on an older tree spirit that had taken to her when it saw she was kindred.

Rin gazed at Chihiro intently, looking for any sign that she had heard her, and sighed. Slowly, she leaned back against the door and slipped to the floor. That girl had changed so much since she had met her, appearance and personality together. Right now, looking at her, Rin had no idea what Chihiro could be thinking. A guilty sort of disappointment came with that. She was disappointed that Chihiro had grown and changed so much without her knowing, disappointed with herself for not having seen that change for herself, or maybe for not having prevented it. After knowing her so well for the time that Chihiro had spent in their world, it was depressing to see her so different. Still, Rin was sure she had seen a glimmer of what Chihiro used to be when she cried on her shoulder outside the old red tower.

And how she had cried! It made her blood boil thinking about whatever had made her cry like that. It was a sisterly instinct that kept her wanting to be close to Chihiro ever since she met her, and it was this abnormality between a human and a spirit that made her want to punish whatever could hurt the young girl so. But first, she had to get her back to the Aburaya. Then Rin would ask questions.

"Sen?" She looked away finally and set her eyes on the floor.

"Mm?" Chihiro was still watching the lantern swinging, transfixed by the light. After the boat had calmed down some, it almost felt as though she was being rocked in a cradle, putting her in an eerily peaceful mood.

"I…You know, we all really missed you. Everyone thought you were gone for good after you left like that." Rin paused to look back at Chihiro. She closed her eyes. "I mean… it was all great that you saved your parents and got away from Yubaba, but after everyone calmed down and things went back to normal…I dunno, it was just kinda lonely."

The ferry swayed slowly, lulling Rin into the same silence that had come over Chihiro. At some point during the ride, the weather had turned stormy, which was rare for the river. She couldn't remember the last time that had happened, but then again, it _had_ been a very long time since she had last left Aburaya. At least the boat had stopped tossing so violently. That was probably why the passengers were so rowdy this time, she thought.

"I tried to come back…" Rin opened her eyes to see Chihiro still staring at the dancing light. "I really tried, I did. I got lonely too."

"It's okay, kid. No harm done. It's not like anybody's going anywhere, anyway." She paused for a moment, thinking. "'Cept, maybe in. People come to work at the Aburaya, and not many of them ever leave. And you know, it's funny, cause the spirit plains are a lot bigger than you think they are. That's a lot of places to not go to."

Rin sat for a moment, contemplating what she had said. She really could have gone somewhere after Chihiro had left. She had saved up enough money for it and felt inspired enough to leave, but she could never bring herself to try and ask Yu-Baaba. The Aburaya was comfortable to a certain extent, and as time went by, her inspiration faded.

Just as she was reflecting on this, the door behind her suddenly opened up and the boat tilted, sending her flat on her back halfway into the hallway.

"oofh. Aw, dammit Sai!"

Chihiro sat up quickly to see what had happened, and burst out laughing. Rin was sprawled out in the doorway, making no effort to get up, and Sai was peeking down at her from around the corner, looking as timid as ever. She had probably just started working at the bathhouse and wasn't used to everything yet, Chihiro reasoned. She had the appearance of a lost chick, her wide eyes and small stature adding to the look.

"Ya coulda knocked at least!" Rin propped herself up on her elbows and then laughed, too.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry Sai. Don't gimme that look."

The child sized spirit looked down at Rin and gave her a small smile. "One of the frogs told me to let you know we're almost at the dock. He said he wants you off the boat first so that the gods don't have to see the human."

"Right, I thought about that. We're gonna go by a passage under the bridge, okay?" She said to Chihiro quickly. "We'll have to take the back alleyway's first, and then we can go underground from there. Oh yeah, Sai, you're gonna have to get over to the baths in section B as soon as you get there. I got a friend to fill in for us while we're out here."

Sai nodded quickly, then grabbed onto the doorway as the boat came to a sudden stop.

"C'mon guys, lets do this quick."

Chihiro soon found herself following Rin down a hallway and up a staircase, and then off the ferry by a gangplank secured by translucent ropes. They walked up the stone stairs briskly at a pace set by Rin's long legs, and then went around the back of a building off to the left, avoiding the restaurants. The tall grass tickled Chihiro's sock-less legs, leaving them damp with the early morning dew that was beginning to settle. A stone staircase presented sitself further up the path, mimicking the one that passed through the marketplace. Chihiro stopped on the third stair while Rin and Sai continued on, unknowing.

She could see it from there, the Aburaya. It was a breathtaking sight. Just the very top of the building was peeking over the restaurants before her, the smokestack billowing black smoke into the faintly lit sky. It was so hard for Chihiro to comprehend that the place she had been longing for for almost six years was now in sight. Far off to the left of the Aburaya, something glistened in the sky and then disappeared. Her thoughts shot back to the dream catcher. She shook her head and looked back to the winding staircase where Sai could be seen rounding a corner into the shadows. A feeling Chihiro couldn't interpret welled up in her chest. Ignoring it, she ran to catch up to the others.

… … … …

Yubaba paced her office gleefully, checking the windows that looked out over the Aburaya grounds every few minutes. This was the moment she had been waiting for. Yes, this was an opportunity that she thought would never come, one where she could regain her other half of the bathhouse back and make that silly little dragon fall back to her feet where he belonged. Well, not that he was particularly silly, or little even, for the dragon's powers would soon surpass her own at the rate he was going. But, that was something she would never admit to anyone. She was becoming desperate to regain control over Haku, and the return of that human Chihiro was something that could help her on her way.

She picked up the skull that served as a phone to the foreman's desk and gave the frogs there directions to post guards at the end of the new bridge into the Aburaya. After that scene when Chihiro first came to the bathhouse, Yubaba had been planning another passage into the Aburaya for the workers to use so that they wouldn't get in the way of the incoming Gods. What a mess that day had been! After that human had passed over the bridge, some of the gods refused to even walk over it before it was cleansed. The frogs who tried to clean it got in the way of the spirits that _would _pass, and Yubaba had lost more money than she gained that day. What bunch of complainers the high class could be. Gossipers, too. They had to be appeased some way, or the steady cash flow into the bathhouse would dwindle while rumors of a badly kept business would swell and multiply. It was an easy solution to have a staircase and tunnel carved down into the ground so that it would come out underneath the big red bridge. The entrance was hidden behind one of the restaurants, so that the hole wouldn't be so conspicuous. A cheap rope bridge with wooden planks connected the dirt tunnel to an entrance into the basements of the Aburaya. Now only the gods and spirits rich enough to sojourn at the bathhouse would cross the bridge, and it became a sort of symbol of power and holiness. The working class became even lower in the view of the gods after this.

The human would see that there were only gods on the bridge and find her way in with the workers, Yubaba knew that. Chihiro would either get help or figure it out herself. She was a feisty girl, though her actions had never made sense to the selfish witch. It was probably just that human curiosity that always had her trying to get near to Haku. But, the dragon had taken some kind of interest in her because of this. He had no debt to her by spirit law because he had saved Chihiro's life before she returned his name, but, Yubaba knew he would do close to anything to see her again. This was another thing she couldn't understand. The girl was only human; Haku shouldn't have had any business with her past her repaying him. But this was of no matter, as long as Yu-Baaba got what she wanted out of each of them.

The witch continued to pace her office happily, scheming out plans of what to do to Chihiro that would make Haku forego his claim on half the bathhouse.

… … … …

The gardens were a calm place to be in the middle of the day, but by night they were as busy as any other place in the mahou no sekai. Spirits went to and fro picking flowers for arrangements in the bathhouse, watering, pruning, and generally bustling about. Haku passed by without even looking at it, trying to find a quiet place to be (other than his office). Why he had thought to go to the gardens was beyond him. Of course there would people in the gardens during night, though he only realized this as the blooming bushes came into view. He continued walking without thought, heading towards the restaurants. The streets were crowded with spirits selling food from stalls and lines of people waiting to get into the restaurants. A few frogs running with packages for the Aburaya went by him, stopping quickly enough to give Haku a bow and then continue on their way. It seemed that wherever he went, people were bowing to him. It bothered him a little, all the false politeness because of his power. The only people that called him anything but Haku-sama anymore were Yubaba and Rin, the latter in the habit of dropping honorifics with just about anyone. Yubaba only showed respect when speaking to her customers or visiting gods, trying to make a good enough impression that they would come back, and maybe with friends. She was clearly not trying to make a good impression on Haku.

All the different scents of food and spirits mingled in the balmy night air, accenting the din of the market place and setting Haku on edge. This wasn't what he had come outside for, he thought in disgust, turning away from the sight of the lower gods and spirits gorging themselves greedily. This was where the less dignified ate, those who weren't rich enough for the Aburaya's grand meals and extravagant baths. The equivalent of spirit tourists mixed in the crowd, some more visible than others, their gaudy clothing and jewelry juxtaposed with the traditional garb worn by spirits of that area. A group of them headed towards Haku, talking up a storm while they meandered the maze of restaurants. Wanting to avoid the crowd he had somehow gotten himself into, Haku quietly slipped through one of the back alleys.

Once he was on the pathway behind the restaurants, he let himself relax. The noise of the crowd was muffled back there, though the scent of the god's food remained, blocking out everything else. Things like that bothered Haku. As a dragon, he had relied on scent and hearing more so than sight. It had been thirteen years or so since he had assumed the human form he was now in as his static body, and still he had the twitchy urge to get away from anything that blocked his senses like that, even if it posed no danger. It was always relaxing to revert to his dragon form and fly the night skies, but there were so many things for him to do now, and it seemed the longer he stayed where he was, the more complicated things got.

Relaxing. That's what it was. No matter where he was anymore, Haku hardly had the time to relax. The walk through the Aburaya's grounds was useful in that it made him realize how needed the Aburaya actually was. Spirits were always bustling around, doing something. The Aburaya gave them an excuse to relax themselves and get rid of all the stress they built up. Haku knew what was actually in the bathwater, so the baths had no appeal to him; the herbs were mostly for scent rather than to really clean or improve a spirits health, and he knew just how often a bath worker would slack off in cleaning, letting grime and other disgusting things collect in the tubs.

Haku was tired of being near all the noise and people. Thankfully, the crowds would die down soon and the sun would come up, and the world would be almost silent. He threw his head back unexpectedly and narrowed his eyes, as if examining the sky. In a wild burst of energy that circulated Haku in a whirlwind, he exploded into the air, silvery green scales streamlining his sleek body. It was comfortable like this, flying aimlessly. He felt so much more himself as a dragon. Hours could pass when he flew, and Haku would hardly notice, but that was alright for now.

The sky was mostly clear, and the weather was perfect. A steady wind pressed at him from behind, letting him drift forward with no effort. Haku coasted the air currents over the spirit plains aimlessly until the sun reached the brim of the horizon and the sky was tinted orange. Slowly, he made his way back to the Aburaya and circled it, hearing parts of mumbled conversation from inside. People were going to bed now. His ears were keen enough to pick up things from a mile away if he felt like listening in, which had made him a good spy for Yubaba. Back then he hadn't cared. Nothing mattered for so long after he lost his river, but now…now there were people to protect. There were other spirits who had felt loss too, ones like the little tree spirit Sai. Haku knew it was a just matter of time before Yubaba found out he was giving part time jobs to spirits like that, but it was those things that were important to him now. Keeping the workers paid correctly when Yubaba was always trying to scam them out of their money, not making spirits like Sai work full time when they were still mourning, while they were still trying to get used to the fact part of them had died – those were the things he really cared about. He knew what it was like.

Tiny water particles stuck to Haku's scales as he passed through a cloud, glistening in the early morning light. He shook himself in a very doglike manner, starting from the tail, sending water in every direction. The sun caught the sudden rain in its rays, making it seem like an explosion of silver in the sky. Haku shot over the market place again, twisting and turning as he flew.

The streets had emptied out in the few hours he had been flying, and were now completely silent. He could hear small sparrows scraping around in the crumbs left by the messier of customers, chirping and scratching at the ground. And then…

"_C'mon Sen, catch up, you can sightsee later. We've gotta get you in there and with a job, or you know what'll happen."_

Haku's eyes widened and he dropped a few feet. His ears couldn't be playing tricks on him, he couldn't be imagining it.

Sen_. Chihiro. _Her name echoed in his mind, canceling out everything else. Haku took a moment to pinpoint where the voice had come from.

It was Rin he had heard down there, on the pathway behind the restaurants where he had just been earlier than night. He flew straight down and transformed in midair, dropping the last five feet and landing on all fours in a catlike position. The buildings and trees passed by in a blur as he ran silently to catch up with them, to see her.

And all of a sudden, there she was. Chihiro was walking with Rin and Sai towards the Aburaya, looking even stranger than she had when she came to the spirit world, her short skirt and sailor blouse standing out terrifically next to the Aburaya uniforms. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to talk to her or even make himself known. Thousands of thoughts barraged his mind. What was she doing here, anyway? Why was she back in the kamikakushi, and how could she have even found her way to the gates? What about her parents? How long was she going to stay? She hardly looked like the same person she was when she saved him, humans grow so fast. Haku couldn't see her face from where he was, and wondered just how different she looked.

But there was one question that stood out among all the others – what if she didn't remember everything? It would be unbearable if she had forgotten him, if she didn't know just how much she meant to him. And so, Haku found himself following behind the three of them at a safe distance, amazed at what was happening.

She was back. Chihiro. Haku definitely wasn't bored anymore.

… … … …

A/N- Well look how long that took! Oh well, at least I haven't quit. I have so much more of an idea, & I have a little plot thing going and everything! I'm excited for this. Please review, reading them makes me so happy. I love getting input, that's why I started posting my story; I want to know just what people think of my writing. Thank you!


	8. Into the Aburaya

**A Second Glance**

Into the Aburaya

… … … …

"Rin, why do we have to go underground?" Chihiro looked at the entrance to the passage warily. She scuffed the ground with her foot quietly, waiting for the elevator to come up from the bottom of the earthen tunnel.

"The Gods." Rin stared at the opening to the shaft impatiently, Sai staying close to her side. "They can be a real pain in the ass with all their high and mighty crap, talking about how the workers are dirty. Yubaba got sick of it and built a new bridge for the workers, so now the only ones allowed on the main bridge are the customers, her, Haku, and a couple of the prettier Yunas." Chihiro's interest sharpened at the mention of Haku.

Rin wrinkled her nose and continued. "They make a big deal about it too, holding it over the rest of our heads while we have to hide ourselves like this. What a big joke…" she trailed off. The rickety elevator came up and stopped abruptly, and the three of them entered.

"Anyway, it's faster to get to the boiler room this way. I make a point of taking the old bridge whenever I'm out past sunup, though. My way of getting back." She pulled the lever that made the elevator go down as she spoke, starting the descent of at least three stories. Chihiro stayed away from the sides as they shot past, remembering the first time she rode in one of the Aburaya's contraptions. The tunnel was small and unfinished looking, and it smelled damp underground, as if it had recently rained. Cheery morning light shone brightly at the exit, which opened up to an unstable, planked bridge in the shadow of the bright red one. Rin and Sai walked straight onto the bridge, holding onto the rope sides.

"…is it safe?" Chihiro called after them. She never had much of a problem with heights before; the few times she had been up in the air there was either no time to be afraid or she was with Haku. But this time, she looked down to the bottom of the canyon and found that the height made her a little queasy. A few inches of water graced the plains, covering the train tracks while the tall grass stuck up into the air.

"O'course it is. What, you think Yubaba would be cheap enough to let her workers fall and die? She needs us more than that. Now c'mon, I'm getting worried about that bruise of yours. It looks pretty swollen. I wanna get you to Kamaji."

Chihiro nodded, and stepped onto the bridge, clinging to the ropes desperately as she tried to not look down. It wasn't that bad, she decided as she was halfway across. Sai had already reached the end and entered the bowels of the Aburaya, and Rin was close behind. Just as she got to the end of the bridge, she heard a loud thud from inside.

"Se—!" Sounds of a scuffle followed, drifting out of the basement. A bird landed on the rope next to Chihiro's hand briefly, and then flitted away. Silence.

"Rin..? Sai?" she called from where she stood, not wanting to make a move towards the door. "Hello?"

No one answered. Chihiro sucked in a breath and steeled herself for whatever was behind that door. 'I'm ten again, I'm brave now.' she tried to convince herself, wanting to rid the knot of fear that clenched her stomach. It struck her as almost ironic that she was having so much trouble to just get inside the Aburaya. For years, Chihiro had always dreamed of Haku appearing one day when she was feeling really down and whisking her back to the spirit world where things would be okay. But, it wasn't like things had ever turned out how she wanted them to.

She stepped into the storage room quietly, leaving the door half open for light. Boxes were stacked against the walls and in the center of the room, leaving paths to different doors and elevators. Chihiro gave the room a once over for her friends. "Rin?"

A clattering followed the call, coming from directly behind Chihiro. She spun around and froze at the sight of a male bath worker she had never seen. Rin was propped up against the wall behind him, tied in the same kind of translucent rope that held the boats to the dock. She squirmed angrily, making furious noises. In the male spirits hands was another length of rope, which he held taught. He smiled and stepped towards Chihiro.

"C'mere girly…you don't wanna try and fight like Rin, you'll only get hurt. We're just takin' a trip to Yubaba, come on with me."

He advanced another step towards Chihiro, who couldn't seem to move. A sickening fear cut through her –why was all this happening? She just wanted somewhere safe to go, somewhere to sleep. Finally finding her nerve, she took a step backwards, ready to bolt. But what about Rin –?

"Can't say I didn't warn you," the frogman said, smirking, and lunged at her. In the blink of an eye, he flew back against the wall behind him, surprise written on his face for the half second he was conscious. He slid to the floor next to Rin, who gave a muffled cheer.

In his place stood the last person Chihiro thought she would ever see again.

"Sorry, I'm a little late," he said to Rin, apologetically. The ropes disappeared with a wave of his hand, freeing her. He hesitated, and then turned to face Chihiro. A moment passed and they stared at each other, saying nothing.

"I…I feel a little woozy," Chihiro finally said, swaying. Suddenly Haku was next to her, his hand on the small of her back, keeping her steady.

"A little border sickness is normal for an adolescent human. It'll go away in a couple days, but I'm sure it will be worse than what you had when you were here last time. It's usually harder for beings to cross realms as age increases," he said, cool and collected like he always had been. He eyed her discreetly, taking note of her inflamed shin and bruised cheek. The purple outline had taken the shape of a line of knuckles.

Rin had walked around a stack of boxes and retrieved Sai from where she had been hiding while Haku spoke. "You want a piggyback?" she asked the young spirit, who shook her head no. Instead, she took her hand. They were cute, Chihiro observed. Almost like a mother and daughter. She tried to keep her thoughts away from Haku for now; she wanted to talk to him when she wasn't feeling so worn down and the room wasn't swimming.

"Haku, come on. I need you to make a potion or something for Sen. You should probably hire her before Yubaba does, too."

"I know. You didn't have to tell me that. Let's go." He swept Chihiro up into his arms bridal style and walked briskly to the elevators.

… … … …

Chihiro made no protest to being carried. It was quite the contrary—she enjoyed the closeness to Haku and few minutes that she could just close her eyes and rest. Every other time she had fallen asleep recently, it had been the sort of black dreamlessness that you wake up from not feeling rested at all. It was easy to pretend everything was perfect while she was in his arms, but all good things come to an end. Chihiro felt herself be put down on a soft cushion and after a moment, opened her eyes.

She was on a deep red couch in a room similar to Yubaba's office, only less ornate. The curtains were open, letting in the morning light. Across the room, Haku tinkered with something over what looked like a floating flame. Neither Rin or Sai were around. For a minute or so Chihiro just lay there, staring at Haku's back as he picked up tiny bottles from a nearby shelf, uncapping them neatly and adding small amounts to something she couldn't see.

"Rin will be back in a few minutes. She went to put Sai to bed – the ferry arrived a lot later than it should have." Haku still stood with his back to her, pouring whatever he had been working on into a mug and then tipping some crushed herbs into a stone bowl, which he put over the strange fire.

"She'll get you a uniform, too, so you don't have to keep wearing that." Chihiro blushed. Haku's voice held some tone she couldn't decipher. When Rin had made a comment about her skirt, she had felt indignant. Now, she just felt embarrassed.

"Thanks," she whispered. "Um…I'll have to ask Yubaba to employ me when everyone gets up, right?" When the sun goes down, Chihiro thought to herself. It was funny how things were backwards like that.

Haku turned to face her finally, frowning. "I think it would be better if I did that myself," he said. He picked up the bowl and mug and headed towards her. "Yubaba still has the right to turn you into a pig if you are unemployed, but that doesn't mean that you have to be employed _to_ her." Gently, he helped Chihiro sit up, putting her back against the arm of the couch.

"And, I'm not exactly in the habit of stealing names. Sound good?"

Chihiro nodded. Haku smiled at her wryly, and then kneeled next to the couch to look at her skinned knee. After inspecting it for a moment, he gingerly put his finger to the inflamed skin. Chihiro's muscle twinged involuntarily and she hissed at the contact. She watched his brows furrow, remembering all the subtle expressions she had learned to read years ago. He looked almost the same as he had back then, but slightly different, too. She hadn't imagined him ageing, but as he sat next to her, she could see that he looked a little older.

Haku dipped his thumb into the stone bowl, which had a brown paste in it, and gave a quick glance to Chihiro's face. In a swift but gentle motion, he smeared some of it on her cut.

"Ow, jeeze!" She jerked her leg away from him on reflex. That stuff burned!

"Calm down. It's supposed to burn, it's healing a lot faster than it usually would." Haku pushed her leg back to where it had been before and blew on the medicine he had made. Surprisingly, it helped ease the burning. It reminded Chihiro of when she was little and her mother would blow on the medicine she put on her scratched up mosquito bites. That stuff had stung, but not as much as this. After half a minute or so, Haku took a damp cloth and wiped the brown stuff off. There was almost no sign on injury left except for the new, pale skin.

"Wow."

"Works well, doesn't it?" Chihiro stared at Haku for a moment before nodding. She still felt pretty dizzy from the border sickness that Haku had mentioned, on top of the sleep deprivation that was eating away at her clarity. It wasn't that she hadn't slept at all, but that when she had slept, it was in odd places for short intervals.

"You're staring." Haku stated shortly, who was doing the same.

"…sorry," Chihiro replied very quietly, not looking away. "It's just…I thought I'd never see you again. I was beginning to think I had made you up."

Haku paused, his expression unchanging, and picked the stone bowl back up. "Let me see your cheek. This will sting, but not as much because there's no broken skin. But still, it's pretty swollen." It was embarrassing to Chihiro the way he put things, how he mentioned her skirt so lightly and made allusions to how bad she really looked. It was just the way he was, and she had missed that. But the way he ignored what she said, that hurt. She really had missed him, and it was only by whatever strange fate that brought her here that she could see him again. He could acknowledge that, at least. But she couldn't say anything to fix it. So, instead, she just turned her head so that her bruised side faced him and let him put the burning brown substance over her skin. Haku stopped for a second, holding her face in his hand a moment longer than needed.

Someone knocked on the door sharply, catching both of them off guard. Without waiting for a reply, Rin barged into the room and plunked herself down on one of the plush chairs in front of Haku's desk.

"I had to make some lame-ass story up for one of the girls that was still up," she breathed out animatedly. "I told her something about one of the kitchen guys getting a hand cut off by a thrown meat knife and having to save Sai from the rampage that happened after and how everyone had to help clean up the blood so the God's meals would be clean and then how Yubaba got all mad at everyone. And she believed me. She woulda wanted to know why the ferry was late and why we were _on_ the ferry and all that stupid nosy stuff that the Yunas always talk about, so I just made up a buncha crap." Rin paused and looked up at the ceiling, thinking. "Speaking of, have you ever heard of the ferry being late? I've been here a lot longer than you, but you've got more inside information, I guess."

Haku, who had been waiting patiently through Rin's rant, shook his head, his dark hair shifting with his movements. "No, I haven't. But I have a good idea as to why it was this time. I'm going to go deal with that soon, actually. I have a feeling Yubaba is still awake." He stood up and handed the damp rag to Chihiro, who wiped off the brown medicine. "You should drink the potion I made; it will help with the dizziness."

"…right. Hey, what about the bathhouse worker in the storage room?" she asked. His presence had been nagging at her mind. She was extremely curious as to what he had been doing down there, though she knew he had been sent by Yubaba. How Yubaba had known she was already there and what she wanted was what Chihiro wanted to find out.

"I'll be dealing with that, too," Haku answered smoothly. "Rin, weren't you going to get Chihiro a uniform?"

"I…uh. Crud." A dawn of realization showed on Rin's face, and she jumped up out of her seat. "I knew I was forgetting something! Stupid Michiru…why can't she just go to sleep like a normal person," she mumbled, frustrated. Without another word, she stalked out of the room, closing the large door harder than she would have otherwise.

Both Chihiro and Haku sat silent for a moment after Rin left, basking in the calm. Haku rifled through the papers in his desk after a minute or so, searching for something. When he found what he needed, he picked up a seemingly expensive fountain pen off his desk and brought both the paper and pen to Chihiro.

"I need to you sign this, right here," he said, using a tone she had never heard from him before. He pointed out the line and put the pen in her hand. "You can be Rin's assistant again, if you want. You'll have more freedom than if you were working for Yubaba, but it will be the same chores and responsibilities. And, according to the rules here, you won't have to do anything Yubaba says, unless I'd approve. Basically, when you sign this, it puts you in my protection." The look on his face meant the world to Chihiro right then. Someone cared. Haku was there. He wanted to protect her. A heavy feeling clenched at her heart, and she held her breath to hold back the tears that pricked in the corners of her eyes.

"I won't overwork you or anything, and you get a day off every eight days, so you can go down to the fields with Sai if you want. She needs to go down to visit her shrine regularly. Rin won't have any days off, though, so she won't be able to go with you. She's still working under Yubaba."

It was endearing, they way he was trying to convince her to sign it, that he would treat her well as an employee. Of course Chihiro would sign, she had no where else to go for now. But, Haku didn't know that. She couldn't tell him that the only reason she had come was because she was afraid of her father, that she had betrayed him in a moment of fear and loss when her mother had left them. She couldn't tell him that she left the parents she had given her everything to save, once upon a time, and that there was no more bravery left in her now than there was in a frightened rabbit in the face of a wolf. She couldn't tell Haku, the one person she had lived to see, strived to find again one day, that she was nothing, and that he was wasting his time. So instead, she just said, "Okay," and signed the damned paper the way her mother and father had signed away the last eighteen years of their lives.

She felt bitter.

When Rin entered the room again a few minutes later, smiling and grumbling at the same, Chihiro tried to smile and nod, but only managed a little grimace. She was tired, and not just physically.

"Thanks," Haku said gruffly when Rin held up the bright orange and blue garb. "Stay here. I'll be back in a little while." The door shut hastily behind him, which sent a gust of air through the room.

"That was a bit abrupt." Rin stated, looking at the door absently. "You really should drink that. Haku generally knows what he's talking about." After a moment, she looked over a Chihiro. A look of surprise crossed over her face.

"Oh wow! He made the fast working stuff? I didn't really notice when I was in here before. I heard that's really hard to make, you've gotta be a real pro."

Chihiro looked down at her knee, inspecting the healed skin. "I guess. I wouldn't really know."

"Well don't look so depressed, kid. Drink your stuff."

Chihiro looked at the murky gray liquid in the mug distastefully. "It looks gross." There were little bits of something dark floating around in it.

Rin gave her a very pointed look, so she sniffed the drink carefully. It didn't smell very bad, like musty tea and something bitter mixed up together. She sucked in a breath and took a gulp of it, hoping it didn't taste as bad as it looked.

Surprisingly, it tasted very pleasant. There was something to it that gave it a little tang like rosehips and peppermint, which was an odd mixture. The texture was grainy and thick, which made it hard to drink, but Chihiro drained the cup in three swallows. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and sat back against the couch.

Her spirit friend raised her eyebrows. "That good, eh?"

All Chihiro managed to get out was a not very sincere glare before she passed out and slumped off the side of the plush maroon cushion.

"I figured that stuff'd make you tired, but wow. Potent stuff, that Haku makes." She put Chihiro back on the couch and covered her with a blanket, tucking it around her gently. She sat back on the chair in front of Haku's desk and watched the sleeping girl, but eventually found it too overwhelming. Instead, she resorted to glaring at the cheery sky past the windows.

… … … …

**A/N – **After putting off this for way too long, I got some encouraging reviews and picked back up on writing. Thanks guys. I'm a little too tired to proofread this, but I managed to outline chapter nine. It'll have to do. Tell me ifI missed something big,I feel likeI must haveleft a paragraph our somewhere.The next post'll take less time than this one did, I swear. Till then, leave me some reviews; tell me the good and the bad. I like it all.


	9. Chapter 9

I know author's notes aren't allowed on FFnet, but I just wanted to inform anyone that still has A Second Glance on their stories alert list that its location has been moved. Chapters will be revised and posted weekly in their new location. The refurbished version can be found by clicking on my author's page.

Thank you for your attention, and happy reading!


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